George Steinbrenner would have loved the Yankees’ pursuit of Chipper Jones, including calling whatever the organization did yesterday a “pursuit.”

The Boss adored chasing superstars and assuring the Yankees dominated news cycles. If there was a touch of the bizarre in it, all the better.

And yesterday unfolded so bizarrely the Coen Brothers should have directed it.

The Yankees non-pursuit pursuit of Jones — the longtime Braves third baseman who retired following last season — lasted about three hours with the media doing the legwork usually provided by the general manager. Of course, the Yankees’ GM is not capable of much actual legwork.

Cashman opened this can of Chipper talking to three reporters with his right leg — broken in a sky-dive gone wrong — propped up on a bench in the home dugout at, fittingly, George M. Steinbrenner Field. He was discussing the already unorthodox strategy of trying to talk Derrek Lee out of retirement when — unprovoked — Cashman mentioned what “a perfect fit” Jones would be.

I was one of the three reporters, and, at first, we thought Cashman might be kidding because he brought up Jones with the kind of nonchalance used to order lunch.

But Cashman said he didn’t have the number for Jones’ agent on him and figured in the Twitter-fueled world it would expedite matters if the media circulated word.

“Get it out there,” Cashman encouraged when asked about his seriousness. “I would sign [Jones] in a heartbeat.”